Striker’s relentless desire to improve in a record-breaking 2021 has put him top of our rankings for a second year running
One always thought that going past Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at the summit of individual achievement would require a different approach, and a different awarding criteria. No one could match their freakish numbers, and a new age would recognise something else – Luka Modric-esque artistry, or the sort of defensive mastery produced by peak Virgil van Dijk, for example.
The most remarkable aspect of Robert Lewandowski’s rise to the summit of the world game, then, is that he has done so by putting up cold, hard figures that compare with the two greatest of the past decade or so. If it is felt that the sport’s individual awards should be justified by team conquests – and February’s Club World Cup win meant Bayern became only the second club, after Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, to rack up a sextuple – then Lewandowski’s continually climbing standards at the age of 33 made a pretty compelling solo case for recognition.